Author: Fintech News Indonesia

UnPAY and Tencent Research Institute have jointly published a whitepaper (in Chinese) on Indonesia’s payment market. This whitepaper focuses on hotspots and key issues of the payment system in Indonesia and is the second of its “Venturing Out” series. It aims to help Chinese payment companies expanding overseas gain a deeper understanding of the world’s fourth most populous country. The first whitepaper which was published in October last year, honed in on Singapore’s payment infrastructure. Even as a developing country, Indonesia is already the largest economy in ASEAN with a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of USD1.016 trillion in 2017. Its GDP…

In today’s digital world, investors increasingly demand to be able to stay abreast of market developments and manage their financial assets from their mobile devices. However, most financial institutions struggle with delivering this experience as they are tied up in a maze of legacy systems and disjointed service channels. PT. Bank Commonwealth (PTBC), the Indonesian subsidiary of Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), has recognized this challenge early on and entrusted Switzerland-based Fintech additiv with delivering the platform for its mobile “SmartWealth” Service. Widely seen as a game-changer in the industry, it provides Premier Banking clients with a 360-degree…

Ride-hailing service GOJEK has today announced a partnership with Carousell, Singapore’s most popular consumer-to-consumer marketplace, to reward Carousell users who are new GOJEK riders with S$13 in ride vouchers. From today to Mar 6, Carousell users who download the GOJEK app by clicking on the GOJEK ads on Carousell’s app or website will receive an additional S$3 ride voucher on top of the usual 2 x S$5 vouchers* offered to new riders by GOJEK. GOJEK’s Global Head of Transport, Raditya Wibowo, says: “At GOJEK, we look to partner with local brands that align with our mission of making the everyday…

Thanks to Go-Jek’s diversification strategy, it’s pretty easy to get a glimpse about the company’s future direction based on what companies they’ve acquired or shook hands with. This time around, it’s come out that the US$9 billion-worth company gained a majority stake in Philippine blockchain-based platform Coins.ph. Since their entry into Singapore as a ride-hailing contender, it seems like Go-Jek is interested in going toe-to-toe with Grab in conquering a slice of the Southeast Asian market. For our interests, this is clear in the application of both Go-Pay and GrabPay, the fintech arm of both companies, respectively. We think there’s more to…

KinerjaPay, a digital payment and e-commerce platform, announced that it has received US$200 from PT. Investa Wahana Group, Indonesia, divided into US$100 million in shares of the Company’s Series F and and another US$100 million in shares of the Company’s Series G Convertible Preferred Stock. The payments firm, will utilise the proceeds to fund their  peer-to-peer lending operations, potential acquisitions and strategic investments in Indonesia as part of their 2019 expansion plans. The company also plans to allocate a certain portion of the subscription proceeds to repurchase KinerjaPay’s stock in the open market. It is looking to expand into prepaid mobile business, P2P…

DailySocial Indonesia recently released a report about their findings on the Indonesian fintech scene, recently notable with the rise of peer-to-peer (P2P) lending. Between December 2017 to November 2018, DailySocial observed at least 14 disclosed funding for fintech startups, noting that there are more later stage investments than the previous year. These facts imply that the Indonesian scene is growing more mature. Therefore, we have looked into the top 5 of those investments, which could give us a hint on which sectors are more mature in Indonesia. In fintech’s ever growing march, these startups could give us a glimpse into…

Nearly 75% of limited partners (LPs), or organizations and individuals investing into funds and non-direct investment entities such as family offices, high net worth individuals and corporate venture capital entities, are bullish on fintech in Southeast Asia with Indonesia perceived as the most attractive market, according to a new survey by tryb. tryb, which surveyed over 85 respondents from a wide range of fintech sectors and LP segments across Asia, Europe and the US in late October 2018, found that nearly 60% of LPs reported that Southeast Asia is a “very attractive” market for fintech companies. Over 40% of LPs…

From making the world’s first blockchain phone call, to the roll-out of eco-friendly tokens, to new public sector uses, to the tokenization of new industries the latest developments in blockchain technology were unveiled to an international audience in Bali this month. Blockchain leaders, government ministers, entrepreneurs, and technology experts at the XBlockchain Summit 2018 spoke to the regional landscape, shared products and best practices, identified opportunities for collaboration, and addressed challenges facing the industry. Held from October 9-10, the Summit featured the latest in blockchain and cryptocurrency, focusing on innovative use cases and long-term solutions for the global market. The…

Following in the steps of international counterparts, Indonesia is setting its sights on blockchain as an enabler of increased efficiency and greater transparency with applications currently being explored in areas and industries that include e-voting and agriculture. Melbourne-based startup Horizon State, which was recently named one of the World Economic Forum’s Tech Pioneers, announced in July a project to roll out a community voter platform built on blockchain technology in the island of Sumatra which it hopes to scale-up for regional and national government elections in Indonesia. “We’re in interesting dialogue at the moment with national and regional governments, which…

Grab, which started out as a Southeast Asian ride-hailing platform that has since delved into “super-app” ambitions, announces a partnership with Mastercard. The pair will be issuing joint prepaid cards geared for the Southeast Asian market. Grab will be issuing both virtual and physical prepaid cards out of this partnership, which will be usable anywhere that accepts Mastercard. This, Grab opines, means that GrabPay of the first e-wallets hailing from this region to go global. How The Grab/Mastercard Partnership Will Work Consumers across the region will be able to apply for the prepaid card directly from the Grab app, and receive…

Singapore has agreed to work with Indonesia to help create a fintech learning programme for higher education providers in Indonesia, as part of an MoU for information exchange between both nations. Temasek Foundation International (TF INTL) and Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP) will partner with Indonesia’s Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education (MoRTHE) to deliver a new programme that encourages an exchange of knowledge among academia, industry partners and regulators in the fintech sphere, through Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) Over the next three years, the three parties will collaborate to implement a fintech learning programme for higher education providers in Indonesia. …